Blizzard searching social media for toxic Overwatch players

Jeff Kaplan is back with another Overwatch video and this time he’s discussing some of the more popular topics that have cropped up in the community.

First on the agenda is the subject of toxicity, something that is hard to combat and manages to raise its ugly head in all online games. Jeff goes over the recent attempts to deal with the problem in Overwatch.

The measures in place have helped a little with a abuse in chat which has dropped 17%. He also days that player reporting up 20% and he thinks it’s having a big impact on the community. It’s at least small steps in getting players to behave. Sadly, it’s never going to be eradicated. Jeff says that the numbers “are not as great as they could be”.

The team has also been proactively looking through social media sites such as Youtube for toxic behavior and tracking down accounts and then taking action against them. The account does not even need to be reported. Blizzard is wanting to be proactive and they are not just relying on their own reporting systems. Players had better start behaving in videos and on other social media platforms or the ban hammer might fall.

The 20% increase in reporting other players is a positive sign although it seems low considering there is a system in place. Perhaps more players than Blizzard thinks are prepared to simply put up with it.

In the video below, Jeff talks more about their three-point hero balance philosophy. This includes and community feedback from many communities along with their own recorded statistics. The final element that decides hero balance is their intuition as developers.

Jeff touches on a few heroes that are currently being looked at including the Mercy changes that are currently in testing as well as some points on Junkrat and his Concussive Mine. They are also looking at options with retuning Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow and they have ideas that may replace it. Mei and Symmetra is also on their radar and Jeff also covers them in the Overwatch video below.